178
CHARACTER CREATION
marTyr
The Martyr suffers for his cause, enduring her trials
out of the belief that her discomfort will ultimately im-
prove the world.
Regain a point of Willpower when you suffer some
damage or loss of a definable resource for your ideals or
another’s immediate gain.
masoChisT
The Masochist exists to test her limits and gains satis-
faction in humiliation, suffering, denial, and physical pain.
Regain a point of Willpower when your own suffer-
ing leads to some tangible gain for you, or whenever you
experience pain in a unique way.
mErCEnary
The Mercenary believes anything can be a commodity.
Appearance and influence are everything when it comes
to a sale, and no advantage is wasted.
Regain a point of Willpower whenever you make a
successful sale of any commodity or service.
monsTEr
The Monster knows she is a creature of darkness and
acts like it. Evil and suffering are tools. She doesn’t commit
evil for evil’s sake but rather as a means to understand
what she’s become.
Regain a point of Willpower whenever you commit
a specific atrocity. Storytellers should be careful when
rewarding this Archetype. A player who chooses violence
as an atrocity shouldn’t regain Willpower every combat,
but perhaps only when she needs to roll a degeneration
check. Rewards should come as a result of the character
challenging his own descent into the Beast.
pEDaGoGuE
The Pedagogue knows it all and make sure his message
is heard – at length, if necessary.
Regain a point of Willpower whenever you see or
learn of someone who has benefited from the wisdom
you share with them.
pEniTEnT
The Penitent atones for the grave sin she commits
simply by being who she is and feels compelled to “make
up” for inflicting herself on the world.
Regain a point of Willpower whenever you feel that
you have achieved absolution for a given sin.
pErFECTionisT
The Perfectionist demands flawless execution from
herself as well as others.
Regain a point of Willpower whenever you motivate
another character to succeed as a result of your own
shining example.
philosophEr
The Philosopher critically examines every situation
looking for logical outcomes and patterns.
Regain a point of Willpower any time a logical, system-
atic approach to a problem helps you solve it, or information
gathered logically is of use in another similar situation.
rEBEl
The Rebel is a malcontent, never satisfied with the
status quo or the system as it is. He does everything in
his power to undermine authority.
Regain a point of Willpower whenever your actions
adversely affect your chosen opposition.
roGuE
The Rogue only cares about one thing: herself. She
is not necessarily a thug or bully; she simply has her own
best interests in mind at all times.
Regain a point of Willpower whenever your self-cen-
tered disposition leads you to profit.
saDisT
The Sadist exists to inflict pain and suffering on oth-
ers. Killing is too easy. She seeks the slowest, most painful
means to push others to the ultimate limits.
Regain a point of Willpower whenever you inflict pain
upon someone for no reason other than your own pleasure.
solDiEr
The Soldier is not a blindly loyal follower. While she
exists for orders, she does not adhere to them unques-
tioningly. More independent than a Conformist but too
tied to the idea of command to be a Loner, the Soldier
applies her own techniques to others’ goals and ambition
lies within the established hierarchy and structure.
Regain a point of Willpower when you achieve your
orders’ objectives.
survivor
The Survivor always manages to pull through, no
matter the odds or opposition. The Survivor’s utter re-
fusal to accept defeat often makes the difference between
179
BACKgROUNDS
success and failure.
Regain a point of Willpower whenever you survive a
threatening situation through sheer tenacity, or when your
counsel causes someone else to persist in spite of opposition.
Thrill-sEEKEr
The Thrill-Seeker lives for the rush of danger and
actively pursues hazardous and possibly deadly situations.
He is not actively suicidal or self-destructive; he simply
seeks the stimulation of risk.
Regain a point of Willpower any time you succeed
at a dangerous task you have deliberately undertaken.
TraDiTionalisT
The Traditionalist prefers to accomplish her goals
with time-tested methods. The status quo is acceptable,
even preferable to change.
Regain a point of Willpower any time the proven way
turns out to be the best. Also, regain a point of Willpower
any time you adhere to one of your previously espoused
positions and it proves a wise course of action.
TyranT
The Tyrant seeks to be in charge or guide a group,
bringing order out of strife.
Regain a point of Willpower when you influence or
aid a group in the completion of a difficult task.
visionary
The Visionary tests accepted societal limits and
seeks what few others have the courage to imagine. She
encourages society to offer what it is capable of offering
instead of what it actually does offer. She is responsible
for bringing about progress and change.
Regain a point of Willpower each time you are able to
convince others to have faith in your vision of the future.
BaCKGrounDs
B
ackgrounds describe advantages of relationship, circum-
stance, material possessions, and opportunities. They
are external traits and you should always rationalize how
you came to possess them, as well as what they represent.
alliEs
Allies are mortals who support you willingly, without
coercion. They are not always available to offer assistance;
they have their own concerns as well, but they could
provide indirect access to their own Backgrounds such
as Contacts, Influence, or Resources. However, nothing
is free. If you draw on favors from your friends, they may
ask for a favor in return.
Allies dots may be pooled among a coterie of char-
acters.
One ally of moderate influence and power
•• Two allies, both of moderate power
••• Three allies, one of whom is quite influential
•••• Four allies, one of whom is very influential
Five allies, one of whom is extremely influential
alTErnaTE iDEnTiTy
You maintain a complete alternate identity including
proper documentation. In this day and age, that meant
business records, church records, and perhaps legal doc-
uments. Every region had its own bureaucracies.
You are new at this identity game. Sometimes
you slip and forget your other persona.
You are firmly grounded in your alternate
identity. You are convincing enough to play
the part of a doctor, priest, noble, diplomat,
or other privileged position.
••• You have a fair reputation as your alternate
persona and get name recognition in the area
where you have infiltrated.
•••• Your alternate identity has respect and trust
within your area of infiltration.
••••• You command respect in your area of infiltra-
tion, and you may even have accumulated a
bit of influence. You have the trust (or at least
the recognition) of many powerful individuals
within your area.
ConTaCTs
Contacts are people you can manipulate or coerce into
offering information. Minor contacts are spread throughout
the city. Roll your Contacts rating (difficulty 7) and reach one
minor contact for each success. However, you still have to
convince them to give you the information. Major contacts
can give you accurate information in their fields of expertise
and each should be described in detail before the game begins.
One major contact
•• Two major contacts
••• Three major contacts
•••• Four major contacts
••••• Five major contacts
180
CHARACTER CREATION
Domain
Domain is physical territory your character controls for
the purpose of feeding. The local Prince or other Cainite
authority acknowledges and supports your claim. You
may designate one or more dots to increase the security
of the Domain rather than its size. Each dot assigned to
security increases the difficulty to intrude into the domain
by one, and decreases the difficulty for you to identify and
track intruders by one. Each level of Domain reduces the
difficulty of hunting checks by one for those allowed to
hunt and adds to your starting blood pool. See p. 334 for
more information on hunting. Domain can be used with
pooled Background points.
A single small building, such as a single-family
home or a social establishment — enough for
a basic haven.
•• A church, manor, or other large structure — a
location with ready (but controllable) access
to the outside world.
••• A city neighborhood — a location or area
that offers areas for concealment as well as
controlled access.
•••• A catacomb, a network of tunnels, the enclave
of homes on a hill overlooking the city — a
place with inherently protective features, such
as bridge-only access or vigilant private guards.
••••• An entire neighborhood, an ethnic ghetto, or
a whole village.
FamE
You enjoy widespread recognition in mortal society as an
entertainer, scholar, warrior, or even criminal. This gives you
privileges when moving in mortal society, but can also attract
unwanted attention now that you’re no longer alive. It’s a
mixed blessing with prestige on one hand and being recognized
at inconvenient times on the other. However, enemies can’t
make you disappear without causing a stir. Your Fame facilitates
hunting in populated areas – reduce the difficulty of hunting
rolls by one for each dot in Fame. Your storyteller may permit
you to reduce difficulties of certain Social rolls as well.
You’re known to a select subculture local
artists, scholars, or the nobility.
•• Random people start to recognize your face;
you’re a minor celebrity such as a small-time
criminal or a local musician.
181
BACKgROUNDS
••• You have greater renown; perhaps you’re a
successful diplomat or an entertainer who
regularly performs for the nobility.
•••• A full-blown celebrity; your name is often
recognized by the average person on the road.
••••• You’re a household word. People name their
children after you.
GEnEraTion
This Background represents your Generation: the pu-
rity of your blood, and your proximity to the First Vampire.
A high Generation rating may represent a powerful sire
or a decidedly dangerous taste for diablerie. If you don’t
take any dots in this Trait, you begin play as a Twelfth
Generation vampire. See p. 341 for further information.
Eleventh Generation: 12 blood pool, can spend
1 blood point per turn
•• Tenth Generation: 13 blood pool, can spend 1
blood point per turn
••• Ninth Generation: 14 blood pool, can spend
2 blood points per turn
•••• Eighth Generation: 15 blood pool, can spend
3 blood points per turn
••••• Seventh Generation: 20 blood pool, can spend
4 blood points per turn and possess Traits at 6
dots
hErD
You have built a group of mortals from whom you can
feed without fear. In addition to providing nourishment,
your Herd may be useful for minor tasks. However, unlike
Allies or Retainers, they are typically not very controllable or
skilled. Your Herd rating adds dice to your rolls for hunting.
Players may purchase pooled Herd with Background points.
Three vessels
•• Seven vessels
••• 15 vessels
•••• 30 vessels
••••• 60 vessels
inFluEnCE
You have pull in the mortal community through
wealth, familial lineage, prestige, politics, blackmail, or
supernatural sway. Influence represents the sum of your
opinion or policy-swaying power in your community,
particularly among law enforcement and bureaucracy.
Influence can be used with pooled Background points.
Moderately influential; a factor in local politics
•• Well-connected; a force in nearby politics
Position of influence; a factor in regional politics
•••• Broad personal power; a force in large-scale
politics
••••• Vastly influential; a factor in politics of the
known world
mEnTor
You have a Cainite or group of Cainites who look
out for you, offering guidance and aid once in a while. A
mentor typically remains aloof, giving useful information or
advice but rarely direct aid. If he arrives to pull you from a
dangerous situation, you’re likely to lose a dot or more in
this Background, or be abandoned as an unworthy protégé.
Mentor is an ancilla of little influence.
•• Mentor is respected: an elder or highly-deco-
rated veteran.
••• Mentor is heavily influential, such as a Prince’s
advisor.
•••• Mentor has a great deal of power over the city,
such as a Seneschal or Sheriff.
••••• Mentor is extraordinarily powerful, perhaps
even a Prince.
rEsourCEs
Resources are assets your character controls. These
may be gold, investments, property, commercial inven-
tories, or even taxes and tithes. A character with no dots
in Resources may have enough clothing and supplies to
get by, or she may be destitute and squatting. You receive
a basic allowance each month based on your rating, so
detail exactly where this money comes from. Players
may purchase Resources for their characters with pooled
Background points.
Sufficient. You can maintain a typical residence
in the style of the working class with stability,
even if spending sprees come seldom.
Moderate. You can display yourself as a member
in good standing of the merchant class, with
the occasional gift and indulgence seemly for a
person of even higher station. You can maintain
a servant or hire specific help as necessary. A
fraction of your resources are available in coin
or gold, readily portable property (like jewelry),
and other valuables that let you maintain a
standard of living at the one-dot level wherever
you happen to be, for up to six months.
182
CHARACTER CREATION
pOOLINg BACKgROUNDS
M
embers of a coterie may choose to pool their
individual points of Allies, Contacts, Domain,
Herd, Influence, Resources, and Retainers.
The Anchor
Players in the coterie choose one Background as
the anchor that holds the shared assets together. Any
pooled Backgrounds may serve in this roll, but no
Background pool can have more dots assigned to it
than the Anchor Background does at any time. If the
Anchor Background is damaged by events during play
or between sessions, other assets drift from the charac-
ters’ control, and it takes effort to win them back.
Any contributing character may pull his stake out of
the pool at any time. The dislocation guarantees some dam-
age; the character gets back one less dot than she put in.
Under normal circumstances, a coterie can’t change
its Anchor Background, nor can it acquire a new Anchor
Background. While it may choose to abandon a certain
Background asset over the course of a chronicle (and
thus free itself of the limitations of the pooled Back-
grounds in question), the fact that Backgrounds change
value only as a result of the story’s events means that the
coterie must acquire new Backgrounds in that manner,
rather than through freebie or experience points.
Using Pooled Backgrounds
Pooled Backgrounds are communal property.
Anyone who contributes to the pool, regardless of the
contribution, has equal access to it. Not everyone can
use the pool simultaneously, though. A Herd pool of
seven dots can grant access only to the same, finite
number of vessels. The allocation of those points de-
pends on the circumstances and agreements between
the characters.
Upper Limits
By pooling points, a coterie can get Backgrounds
that surpass the normal five-dot limit. This ar-
rangement is normal and reflects the advantages of
cooperation. There is no upper limit on the level a
Background can rise to, but it’s usually best for the
Storyteller to impose a 10-dot limit. The Storyteller
should take the scaling of Backgrounds into consid-
eration, increasing reliability rather than quantitative
value as the ratings escalate among the coterie. This is
a question of balancing player expectations with ele-
ments of the story, so be sure to set some guidelines for
what the shared Backgrounds actually represent before
the chronicle begins.
••• Comfortable. You are a prominent and established
member of your community, with land and an owned
dwelling. You likely have more tied up in equity
and property than you do in ready coin. You can
maintain a one-dot quality of existence wherever
you are without difficulty, for as long as you choose.
•••• Wealthy. You rarely touch gold, as most of
your assets exist in tangible forms that are
themselves more valuable and stable than coin.
You hold more wealth than many of your local
peers. When earning your Resources doesn’t
enjoy your usual degree of attention, you can
maintain a three-dot existence for up to a year,
and a two-dot existence indefinitely.
••••• Extremely Wealthy. You are the model to which
others strive to achieve, at least in the popular
mind. You have vast and widely distributed assets,
perhaps tied to the fates of nations, each with huge
staffs and connections to every level of society
through a region. You travel with a minimum of
three-dot comforts, more with a little effort.
rETainErs
Retainers are servants, assistants, or loyal and steadfast
companions. Many vampires’ servants are ghouls, ghouled
animals, or people whom you’ve repeatedly Dominated or
completely enthralled. Retainers may be useful, but they’re
never flawless or blindly loyal – if you treat them poorly
without exercising strict control, they may well turn on you.
With Storyteller permission, a player may create a single more
competent Retainer by combining points in this Background.
Players can spend pooled Background points on Retainers.
One retainer
•• Two retainers
••• Three retainers
•••• Four retainers
••••• Five retainers
183
WILLpOWER
sTaTus
You’ve standing within the local Cainite community.
You may derive this standing from your sire’s status and
bloodline, the reputation of your coterie, or your own
individual deeds. High Status may make you a target for
those against your faction. When interacting with local
Cainites, you may roll your Status in conjunction with a
Social Trait to reflect the positive effects of your prestige.
As the lowest of the low, Caitiff characters may not
purchase Status during character creation.
Known: a recognized neonate
•• Respected: an ancilla
••• Influential: an elder
•••• Powerful: a widely respected elder
••••• Luminary: a Prince or other Cainite leader
virTuEs
T
he Virtues Traits define a character’s ethical code and
commitment to his chosen morality. They come into
play when a character faces an impending frenzy, does some-
thing ethically questionable by their morality, or confronts
something disturbing and terrifying. A vampire’s Virtues
are determined by his Road, the particular code of ethics he
follows. Characters may have Conscience or Conviction, and
Instinct or Self-Control. You can find more about Roads on p.
110. At character creation, a character’s Road rating is equal
to Conscience/Conviction + Instinct/Self-Control Virtues.
ConsCiEnCE/ConviCTion
Conscience is a Trait describing a character’s moral
judgment and stems from her attitude and outlook. Convic-
tion represents a character’s callousness and dedication to a
generally inhumane cause. These Virtues prevent a vampire
from succumbing to the Beast by defining the Beast’s urges
as unacceptable. Conscience/Conviction factors into the
difficulty of many rolls to avoid committing a transgression.
• Uncaring/Remorseful
•• Normal/Righteous
••• Ethical/Ethical
•••• Righteous/Uncaring
••••• Remorseful/Callous
insTinCT/sElF-ConTrol
Self-Control defines a character’s discipline and mastery
over the Beast. Instinct reflects a character’s closeness with
her Beast, and ability to work with it to frightening ends.
Those with high Self-Control rarely succumb to emotional
urges and are thus able to resist frenzy. Those with high
Instinct can manage their Beasts and keep them placated
until ready to unleash on an unsuspecting world. Instinct/
Self-Control forms the dice pool to resist frenzy (see p. 357).
Note: A character may never roll more dice to resist
or control frenzy than she has in her blood pool.
• Unstable/Unstable
•• Animalistic/Normal
••• Bestial/Temperate
•••• Primal/Hardened
••••• Monstrous/Total self-mastery
CouraGE
Courage is a universal trait, regardless of the Road
the character follows. It represents bravery and mettle
when faced with circumstances they endemically dread:
fire, sunlight, and True Faith. See Rötschreck (p. 357).
• Timid
•• Normal
••• Bold
•••• Resolute
••••• Heroic
willpowEr
W
illpower measures a character’s inner drive and ability to
overcome unfavorable odds. It has a permanent rating and
a temporary pool of points. The rating is rolled or tested, while the
pool is spent. When a player spends a point of Willpower, mark
the expenditures in the pool (the squares) it will fluctuate a great
deal during the course of a story. A character with no Willpower
pool is exhausted mentally, physically, and spiritually, and can
no longer muster the energy to undertake an action or cause.
For more information on Willpower, see “Spending
Willpower” on p. 339.
Measured on a 1-10 scale, a character’s Willpower is
equal to his Courage at character creation.
Spineless
•• Weak
••• Unassertive
•••• Diffident
••••• Certain
••••• • Confident